Former Mizzou football player among Greitens' picks for university system's governing body

Gov. Eric Greitens wants a former Mizzou football player and two others with ties to the state’s flagship university campus to help oversee the University of Missouri System.

The new curators-in-waiting are Darryl Chatman, Jeff Layman and Jamie Farmer. They all studied at the Columbia campus, and need to be confirmed by the state Senate.

Greitens announced the three appointments to the Board of Curators on Wednesday. The spots were open after he withdrew former Gov. Jay Nixon’s interim appointments.

“We have the potential to make Missouri’s higher education system a national model,” Greitens said in a statement. “There are also many areas where higher education can be improved. We can encourage more intellectual diversity and become the best state in the country at preparing students for rewarding careers.”

Chatman, an attorney, was a Mizzou linebacker in the 1990s. He holds two master’s degrees and a law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

If approved, Chatman would be the only African-American on the nine-person board. In response to racial unrest at Mizzou in 2015, auditors have recommended diversifying the four-campus university network.

Layman works in private wealth investment with Morgan Stanley and previously was a trustee of Ozarks Technical Community College.

Farmer is an entrepreneur and president and principal of Farmer Holding Company, a parent company for several Midwest businesses.

The Board of Curators next meets in April, when they’ll consider a response to Greitens’ proposed higher education budget cuts — and possibly a hefty systemwide tuition increase.

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Updated Feb. 11 with correction about how state universities can raise tuition -- The University of Missouri System is strongly considering tuition increases for its four campuses due to declining enrollment and declining state funding.

It’s still early in the budgeting process, but this week’s Board of Curators meeting was the first chance for the governing body to discuss Republican Gov. Eric Greitens’ proposal for another large cut in state funding — 9 percent — in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

The University of Missouri should emphasize diversity in its recruitment, train professors in the importance of diversity in their courses and increase outreach to improve diversity among faculty and staff, a systemwide task force recommended on Wednesday.

Those proposals were among priority items included in the task force’s report. It was responding to a comprehensive audit of diversity, equity and inclusion practices at the university conducted by the consulting firm IBIS.